I still remember the moment it all became clear for me.
It was during the Pandemic and Edelman had invited me to be the inaugural guest for “Friday Vibes” – a new weekly show designed to bring employees together.
Global CCO Judy John and I sat in conversation for a while and then the segment wrapped with a series of rapid-fire questions that hadn’t been shared with me in advance.
The final question was this: “what most surprises you about women in business?”
I answered immediately and emphatically: “That they don’t invest in coaching for themselves.”
I don’t know that I had ever previously articulated this. But it was spoken like the truth bomb I came to realize it was over the coming months.
When I review my own career, it is coaching that stands out as the single most important force directing me. The first time I heard about coaching, I remember thinking “I want that.”
I invested in coaching for myself because I somehow knew that if I wanted others to bet on me, I needed to bet on myself. The same held true for the 3% team – I knew that an investment in coaching would serve us all well. Thank you to the amazing Jen Ostrich for guiding us over many years, and to Rob Schwartz for coaching me in more recent years.
Why coaching is the next frontier for 3%
The 3% Movement made its mark through conferences and research from 2012-2022, raising awareness of the relationship between diversity and creativity. With female creative directors up from 3% to 29% in that decade, there was a lot to be proud of. Yet when large live events became challenging to host safely, our team took some time to reflect. During that pause, I used my time wisely: I began my own coaching certification.
Much like the lightning bolt moment at Edelman, I had a strong knowing that this was the next phase of the journey. Because this 29% – not the usual suspects – who are now leading are doing so inside companies not built by or for them. Rather than risk them shape-shifting to fit old paradigms, I know these new leaders will be far more valuable – and happier – if they follow their own instincts, vision and gifts. How? Through coaching.
Coaching provides leaders with the gift of time and focus to tune into their own wisdom. It can be utterly transformative, yet is somehow considered optional, or even a luxury. Everyone benefits from coaching and everyone who wants to be coached should be able to be.
Yet research 3% did this past year reveals that the creative industries are under-coached. 42% of our industry has never had a single coaching session. And almost all of that 42% reports they would welcome coaching “if they could afford it.”
So a bunch of us coaches who hail from the advertising industry are joining forces to give coaching a rebrand. To raise awareness of the incredible benefits of coaching and to make people aware that coaching isn’t for people who need to “fix” something. It’s for all of us who want to deepen our creative impact and find more joy in life.
We’re bringing group coaching and Office Hours-style engagements to creative companies to make it more accessible to more people. And we’re building our own community of coaches to support one another in an otherwise solitary career path.
Please meet our coaches and read more about our shared vision.
This is the future of creativity.
Join us.
